Repeatability of free-burning fire experiments using heterogeneous natural forest fuel beds in a combustion wind tunnel
Sullivan, Andrew
;
Mulvaney, Joshua;
Cary, Geoff;
Bishop, Glenys
2016-04-04
Journal Article
International Journal of Wildland Fire
25
5
445-455
Combustion wind tunnels are often used to investigate the propagation of free-moving fires through solid-phase fuels. However, the results of such studies are difficult to apply directly to wildland fire situations due to the disparity between the standardised ‘artificial’ fuel beds typically used in combustion wind tunnel experiments, and the heterogeneous fuel beds found in the field. In order to explore the feasibility of using heterogeneous ‘natural’ fuel beds in subsequent combustion wind tunnel experiments, this study quantified the variability in forward rate of fire spread resulting from the use of heterogeneous natural fuel beds in a combustion wind tunnel under a given set of burning conditions. The experiment assessed the effects of fuel type and air speed, and controlled for the effects of fuel moisture content, fuel load and fuel particle size. It was found that the variability in rate of spread increased with mean rate of spread, but that the overall residual variance (σ_e^2 0.028, s.e. 0.011) was low compared to the effects of air speed and fuel type. This demonstrates that heterogeneous natural fuel beds can be used in combustion wind tunnel experiments without introducing a large degree of variability, obscuring the effects of the experimental treatments, or requiring large sample sizes.
CSIRO Publishing
bushfire, wildland fire, wildfire, fire behaviour, CSIRO Pyrotron, laboratory experimentation.
Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified
https://doi.org/10.1071/WF15068
EP152010
Journal article - Refereed
English
Sullivan, Andrew; Mulvaney, Joshua; Cary, Geoff; Bishop, Glenys. Repeatability of free-burning fire experiments using heterogeneous natural forest fuel beds in a combustion wind tunnel. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 2016; 25(5):445-455. https://doi.org/10.1071/WF15068
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